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Curse Vs. Medallions

The world of Ailevian is tainted with the presence of a curse which causes all people- giants, immortals and humans alike- to turn into animals.

There is a cure to the curse. The immortals are able to use their magic to create jewelry called medallions. When worn upon a cursed individual, their curse is cleansed forever and they are granted new powers in place of what was lost.

However, as a consequence, the medallion wearer’s soul is absorbed inside the jewelry. If the jewelry is removed from their person, they die.

FAQ

The dichotomy of the curse and medallions and the way they interact is very black-and-white. Most of these rules- if not all of them- have no exceptions.

Q. Who can make medallions?
An immortal. Since most immortals are dead or missing, the only immortal currently forging medallions is Olgrich.

Q. How does someone get their medallion?
A. An individual can do one of the following to get a medallion:

Request one from Lord Olgrich. They can send a letter to the palace of Doumaar, arrive in person, or send a messenger to Doumaar. They can also contact their local leader, if they live in a medallion-allied city. The political leader or king of that city will then contact Lord Olgrich to forge a new medallion. They often do this in bulk, for they receive many requests daily.

Receive a medallion from a messenger or from Olgrich without asking for it. Sometimes, the King will make an individual a medallion without their knowledge and send it to them or summon them mysteriously to his palace. This is a bit less common than the aforementioned method, but it is known to happen.

Receive one from someone else sacrificially. A person can give up their medallion to another individual, and die in the process.

Find or receive an unclaimed medallion, such as in a will, on the corpse of someone who has died already, or otherwise lost/discarded by the previous wearer.

Q. Do mortals become immortal when given a medallion?
A. No. They are different races. Mortals can, and will, still die while wearing a medallion. While medallions can protect their wearer’s life in some situations, the eventual death of a mortal wearer is inevitable.

Q. How do cursed people transform?
A. All cursed people have an animal quality, such as a tail or dog ears, at all times. To fully transform into an animal is a painful and often unintentional process. Intentional transformations are difficult. The more it happens, the harder it will be to turn back into a human.

Q: Is everyone cursed at some point?
A: Yes. Absolutely everyone- human, immortal and giant alike- are born cursed.

Q: Can someone be cursed and have a medallion at the same time?
A: No.

Q. Can you remove your own medallion?
A. Yes. However, if it leaves your person for an extended period of time, you’ll die. The body will begin to shut down the longer you are apart from it. If someone else picks it up and puts it on, you die immediately.

Q. Can someone else take off your medallion?
A. Not easily. The medallion emits a burst of electricity to a third party who attempts to remove it. This is a protective measure of magic to prevent medallion-bearers from being killed by an assailant simply ripping off their jewelry or accidental deaths in similar circumstances. It is perhaps possible to remove the medallion with enough force and resilience, if the magic doesn’t kill you first.

Q. Say I killed a medallion-bearer. Can I put on his medallion once he’s dead?
A. Yes.

Q. Can I wear multiple medallions at once?
A. Your soul is contained in only one medallion. If you wore any additional medallions, they’d do nothing.

Q. Can you give your medallion to someone else willingly?
A. Yes. But when the exchange is made, you will die.

Q. What does a medallion do?
A. They can do a variety of unusual magic abilities. However, the magic is not voluntary.

Q. Does the curse hurt?
A. Yes, transforming to and from human form to animal form is very painful. The bones must stretch and snap to realign themselves. Some people lose entire limbs as they fuse into their bodies. Other people grow extra appendages. For a body to rearrange itself to such a degree, it is very painful.

Q. How long does it take to turn from a human to animal?
A. The more skilled the accursed is, the faster the process can be, but the more painful. A slow transformation will take from 5 to 10 minutes and be manageable in pain. A fast transformation can happen over the course of several seconds with a cacophony of snapping and stretching of bones and sinews.

Q: Is transformation voluntary?
A: It doesn’t start out that way, but it can be. Most people transform by accident. It is a power that can then be mastered and perfected. However, one must take care- the more they turn into an animal, the more they forget to be human. If this happens, the human is often called feral by the populace.

Q: Can a medallion’s magic ever be mastered and perfected?
A: No. Shapeshifting is not considered “magic” in Ailevian and is just referred to as a curse. Magic- true magic- comes from medallions (or an immortal), and is completely separate from the will of a human or giant that wields it.

Q. Does a medallion magic ever hurt?
A. Yes. It depends on the medallion and its unique power.

Q. Why does Kai wear his medallion over his dead eye socket?
A. It provides a supernatural replacement to his physical vision. He wears it level to his natural eye to avoid having distorted perspective. If he wore it around the back of his head, he could ‘see’ that way, but it would really mess with his brain and distort his vision. Kai sees a bit more than just reality through the lens of his medallion, however…